The mortar was near to a TV remote control which showed how small it was. Nevertheless, someone called in the police.

Mr Driscoll said: ‘I was stunned. It was just mad. Five officers turned up in unmarked police cars.

‘They flashed the search warrant in my face and said it was lucky I was in so they didn’t have to break my door down. Everyone has been laughing about it and I think it’s funny. It’s so stupid.

‘The Action Man looked a bit like me so I decided to put it as my Facebook picture.

‘I didn’t even notice the mortar in the background.

‘Over a month later, there were the cops, threatening to bust down my door.’

Good thing he didn’t answer the door holding a toy gun, or a phone, or a zucchini. Subjects of the Crown have been shot for less.

In 2010 17 states enacted a phosphate ban for dishwasher detergent. They include: Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Notice a common thread? Hint: Democratic control.

Another commonly encountered occurrence, one size fits all social engineering.   Doesn’t matter if you have hard water or soft water, whither your waste water goes to municipal  pipes or a septic system located on your own property or if that said property is on the shores of a public lake or two hundred miles from any body of open water or aquifer.

It does make a different if you are a citizen or affiliated with the federal or state government. Federal and State (and most City-owned facilities) are exempt.

Another common thread is the near universal dislike for the job the new non-phosphate dishwasher detergents are doing.  (Does this remind you of the other experiment in social engineering also going on with gasoline? )  My appliance repairman put me on to the changes in the formula of my current dishwasher detergent as the cause for the miserable results coming out of the washer.

Well I’m going to try a new dishwasher detergent, (online (non-local) purchasing coming to the rescue…again).

A Dishwasher Detergent With Phosphate! I haven’t got or tried it yet so I’m not recommending anyone go buying it. Unless you are just in the mood to stick a thumb in the eye of Eco-idiot liberal fascists.